Allegheny County's new covid case numbers recede slightly - TribLIVE

After a week of staggering new daily covid case reports, Allegheny County added 920 additional cases over the past two days, according to the Health Department.

On Friday, the county added a record 869 new cases. On Thursday, 773 new cases were announced. The two-day total was 1,642 — a record. By contrast, Sunday-Monday’s total was a nearly a 44% decline.

In a report Monday, health officials said 520 new cases were added Sunday and 400 on Monday.

While any drop in new covid cases is welcome, the news is not necessarily an indication of a waning concern.

The dip was anticipated by researchers with the Covid Tracking Project. In a blog post last week, journalist/researcher Erin Kissane wrote that around Thanksgiving, “metrics will flatten out or drop, probably for several days. … Holidays, like weekends, cause testing and reporting to go down and then, a few days later, to ‘catch up.’” The Tracking Project is a volunteer organization launched from The Atlantic.

Despite the lower number of cases, Allegheny County posted the highest number of new cases in Pennsylvania in the past two days (920). Philadelphia, which usually has the highest number of the day’s new covid cases, posted only 868 new cases since Saturday.

Among the new cases, 902 were confirmed through 3,339 PCR tests from Nov. 6-29 — a 27% positivity rate. Of those tests, 143 are more than a week old.

On Monday, the county updated its covid-case breakdown for neighborhoods and municipalities. Plum was the area with the highest new cases (168) in the past week, followed by Penn Hills (152), Ross (132), Whitehall (118), South Fayette (116) and Mt. Lebanon (107). There were 13 areas with no new cases in the past week.

Eighteen of the news cases were listed as probable. Health officials define a probable case as one in which a patient has a positive viral antigen test or covid symptoms with a “high-risk exposure” to someone who has been confirmed to have coronavirus.

The new cases range in age from 3 weeks to 98 years old, with a median age of 42. The county’s seven-day total of new cases is 4,321.

Health officials reported there were four new deaths over the past two days. The deaths occurred from Nov. 16-28. Three of the people were in their 70s, one was in their 80s.

Among the latest cases — 482 females, 438 males — the age breakdown is:

Ages 0-4 6
Ages 5-12: 23
Ages 13-18: 42
Ages 19-24: 115
Ages 25-49: 316
Ages 50-64: 209
Ages 65 and over: 209

In the past 10 days, hospitalizations for those with covid-19 in Allegheny County have increased by nearly 59%. Patients who are moved into intensive care units have increased by nearly 28% in that same time.

According to the state’s covid-19 tracking website, 611 Allegheny County residents are in the hospital with the virus, 171 of them in the ICU and 90 of them on ventilators. State officials report there are 928 operational ventilators in the county, with 252 (27.1%) currently in use for all illnesses.

To date, the county reports that 2,015 residents have been hospitalized for the virus, with 58 new hospitalizations announced over the past two days.

Allegheny County’s covid website is reporting outcomes in 14,289 cases — with 13,780 assumed to be recovered and 509 deaths. The current recovery rate for those whose case has an outcome is more than 96%. According to county estimates, there are about 14,115 covid-19 cases without an assumed outcome yet.

Cases are considered to be “recovered” after it’s been 32 days since the person was hospitalized for covid-19 and not deceased, or if they weren’t hospitalized within 14 days of testing positive.

Three more Allegheny County jail employees have tested positive since late last week. To date, 39 workers have tested positive, with 21 recoveries. The county has tested 194 workers to date, with seven pending tests among workers. There have been no new positive cases among inmates for several months. To date, 654 inmates have been tested, with 38 positives and 610 negatives and some tests still pending. All covid-positive inmates have either recovered or been released.

At 4 p.m. Thursday, the Allegheny County Jail Oversight Board will hold a virtual meeting, which will be available to the public live online. Citizens may submit comments and questions online to the Jail Oversight Board no later than noon Wednesday. The meeting link will be available on the county’s jail web page.

Since the pandemic began in March, 24,576 county residents have had positive PCR tests for the virus, with 259,157 reported negative — meaning 8.6% of those PCR tests have been positive.

Chris Pastrick is a Tribune-Review digital producer. You can contact Chris at 412-320-7898, cpastrick@triblive.com or via Twitter .

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